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Sony's 50-megapixel sensor found in the latest 645 medium format digital CMOS bodies brought such cameras down in price considerably for the first time while extending ISO usability to the more DSLR-normal ISO 6,400. Today's announcement brings a new iteration of that technology in the form of the IQ3 100MP, also in a CMOS flavor. Although the resolution is doubled (and file size is quadrupled), Phase One also managed to pull out an extra stop of ISO performance on both ends of the spectrum, which now goes from ISO 50–12,800. Dynamic range also increases a stop over other models to 15 stops.
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Flash can be an exceptional tool for creatively lighting our images. Whether it be speedlights or high-powered studio strobes, there are infinite ways to create or augment light in our photographs. Photographers work extremely hard to create amazing lighting setups for dramatic effect or sometimes simply for their own satisfaction, but keeping the light subtle can often be the best way to make use of the power of flash.
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When you think of great photos, National Geographic often comes to mind. That's why it comes as no surprise that for their 2015 photo contest, they received over 13,000 entries. Amateur and professional photographers from around the globe were invited to submit photos in three categories: people, places, and nature, with the hope of having their image selected as one of the winners. Check out this video to hear from the judges and get a look at some of what goes into the selection process.
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Phase One has announced a 100MP back for its modular XF medium format camera system. The CMOS sensor was developed in collaboration with Sony and, based on the 'wide angular response' claim, may use a similar pixel design to the one used on the recent a7R II. Despite being described as 'full frame' the sensor is 53.7 x 40.4mm, making it two and a half times larger than the 135 format to which the term is most often applied. The 'full frame' MF sensor guarantees that the full field-of-view of MF lenses can be realized, compared to the cropped fields-of-view a number of previous MF backs, such as the IQ250, yielded. The Phase One XF 100MP camera system offers 16-bit color output and a claimed 15 stops of dynamic range, presumably at the lowest ISO setting of 50. The camera body, back and 80mm Schneider Kreuznach lens (~50mm equiv. Continue reading "Phase One launches 100MP medium format back with Sony co-developed sensor"

George Lucas recently spoke with Charlie Rose, and the 50-plus-minute talk is fascinating on a number of levels, from how Hollywood changed in an unfortunate way after Star Wars, to how he feels about the new film, and where he sees his career now:

Here are just some of the most interesting points from the interview:

He Never Wanted to Be Involved in Hollywood Movies
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This is something he's reiterated a number of times. While he's become synonymous with Hollywood, his goal was to always make small films that were motivated by visuals rather than plot — "tone poems" as he refers to them. In many ways, the original Star Wars could not have been made in the current climate. With a few exceptions, there aren't many large-scale original movies being made today. Star Continue reading "George Lucas on Filmmaking: ‘You’re Telling a Story Using Tools, Not Using Tools to Tell a Story’"

In a video just released from NAB 2015, cinema5D sat down with Tim Siddons from Blackmagic Design, Sebastian Pichelhofer from the Open Source Apertus project, and Michel Juknat for Kinefinity, and talked about not only new products, but how each company views their own cameras and the needs of their users:
The thing that has stood out to me, and one of the things that I've learned from doing this for a number of years, is that every company works very differently, and comes up with products and product cycles in their own way. A camera is ultimately a tool, and there are so many different shooters and different needs that it's impossible to create one camera that fits the needs of everyone.
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The Canon C100 series has been a workhorse among many shooters, especially at lower budget levels.
The first low-budget large-sensor cinema camera from Canon, the C100 Mark I (which was announced in late 2012), has come down in price substantially to just $2,500 for the body only (thanks to Jeremy for pointing this out). If you want that version with Dual Pixel AutoFocus, it will cost another $500 for a total of $3,000 body only. As far as the newer C100 Mark II, while there is a decent improvement in image quality with the same sensor, most of the improvements are in usability. Better EVF and LCD made it a much nicer camera to use, and now you can get it for just $4,500 with Dual Pixel AF.
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One of the big stories this past New Year’s Eve was the major fire that broke out at the 63-story Address Downtown Dubai hotel, which sits next to the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
37-year-old photojournalist Dennis Mallari was one of the many people in the hotel when the blaze started. He found himself trapped on the 48th floor, where he had planned to shoot the city’s firework displays at midnight.
CNN reports that the fire started on the 20th floor and quickly flooded many of the floors above with smoke, preventing Mallari from leaving the building through ordinary exits.
Mallari began posting pleas on social media for help, writing: “I’m here on the 48th floor. Help”

The Sony a7S II is known to have amazing performance in low light and at high ISO. To see just how powerful its low light capabilities are, a Greek photographer who goes by Boji decided to do a casual test that pits the camera against the human eye. You can see the comparison in the 48-second video above.
Boji says he was searching for dark places to test the camera’s high ISO performance but couldn’t find any place dark enough to challenge the camera.
The test was based on what he could see with his own eyes — Boji adjusted his cameras settings until the resulting footage roughly matched what he was seeing while looking around in the locations. For the “camera’s view,” he shot at between ISO 64,000 and ISO 256,000 (without any noise reduction added in post).
“The only thing I know for sure is how much more

If you’re interested in taking your photography business to the next level, you do not want to miss out on the newest photography workshop hitting the industry:
Lea Clark: Showing American Girls how to live their Photography Dreams.
According to her most recent write-up on Good Morning America, Lea Clark, American Girl’s 2016 Girl of the Year, is a talented photographer and animal lover, whose photography has taken her all over the world, most recently to Brazil.
Lea, 10 years old, shared that she’s been involved in photography ever since she was 1. Her plastic eyes twinkled as she laughed and said, “My first word was ‘bokeh.’” We sat down with Lea, well, actually, WE sat Lea down, to ask her a few questions about her photography.
“I discovered my passion for photography the second my molded plastic camera was draped over my hand. It was like

Kenko Tokina has announced a new ultra-wide zoom lens for Canon and Nikon crop sensor cameras. The new Tokina AT-X 14-20mm f/2 PRO DX has a 35mm equivalent focal range of 22-32mm on Canon APS-C cameras and 21-30mm on Nikon ones.
The lens has a large, fixed f/2.0 aperture that lets you keep your ISO low and shutter speed fast when shooting in low light environments.
It features a plastic aspherical lens for “improved surface accuracy” and anti-reflection thanks to a special coating (to combat ghosting and flares). To the rear of the lens are 2 low-dispersion aspherical glass elements that help correct for various aberrations.
A special feature in the new 14-20mm is the “One-touch Focus Clutch” system, which lets you toggle between manual and auto focus by simply sliding the focus ring instead of having to worry about a separate switch. Slide the focus ring forward for

When the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve in the capital city of Lima, Peru, things get crazy. People shoot fireworks high into the sky from the streets and from the roots of buildings, creating a spectacular light show.
Photographer Jeff Cremer was in Lima this year and decided to use his camera drone to capture what the crazy fireworks display looks like from above. It “looks like the start of the air campaign in Iraq,” Cremer says.
“At around midnight I flew the drone over all the fireworks at an altitude of around 200m,” the photographer writes. “I wanted to fly lower but I could just picture someone getting lucky with a direct bottle rocket hit to the drone so I stayed up high.”

NHL photographers are getting a little too involved in the action these days through the little hole in the rink glass that they shoot through. A week after a photographer dropped his lens hood through the glass and had it confused as a puck by the players, a photographer has accidentally injured a player by being a little careless with his lens.
The incident happened yesterday at the 2016 NHL Winter Classic between the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins. Early in the 3rd period, Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty was skating alongside the boards when he ran right into the long DSLR that a photographer had stuck through the hole. Pacioretty’s forearm took the brunt of the impact:
“Vision also of Max the captain of the Canadiens, he hurt his arm on a camera that was sticking out of a little hole in the plexi-glass, and was cranky at the

The new year is upon us. In 2016, many of us will take on resolutions related to our photography. There’s probably not a more common resolution than the 365 project, where a photographer commits to publicly post one photo every day. Projects range in scope, theme, and popularity, but one thing is for sure: Most of us never complete it.

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